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World News in Brief: Deaths and injuries mount in Ukraine, refugees from Sudan, Vanuatu quake response

·December 22, 2024·2 min read

In October and November alone, there were more than 2,180 civilian deaths and injuries, while nearly 40,000 people have been uprooted by fighting in frontline areas in Donetsk and Kharkiv, according to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission to Ukraine meanwhile has highlighted an increase...

Staggering scale of Sudan crisis ‘demands sustained and urgent attention’

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·December 21, 2024·2 min read

Briefing ambassadors in the Security Council, Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations at the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), described the situation as a “crisis of staggering scale and cruelty”. “It demands sustained and urgent attention,” she emphasized. Ms. Wosornu detailed the catastrophic toll of the conflict, which...

Syria: Rights investigators call for protection of evidence, including mass grave sites

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·December 21, 2024·2 min read

A team from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Syria visited former prisons and detention centres, including the notorious Sednaya and the Military Intelligence Branch 235 prisons. It is the first time the team has been able to access Syria, as the former regime denied all previous requests...

Syria transition may fail if support lifeline is delayed, says IOM chief

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·December 21, 2024·3 min read

“We are not promoting large-scale returns; the communities frankly are just not ready to absorb the people who are displaced and would come home…it will overwhelm the country,” said Amy Pope, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). “Many have returned to find their find their homes reduced...

Sudan’s El Fasher siege: UN humanitarians killed as refugee crisis intensifies

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·December 21, 2024·3 min read

In a new report, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) has detailed the catastrophic humanitarian situation unfolding in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state. The city has been under siege for seven months by fighters from the powerful militia known as the RSF, which has been battling...

Security and economic woes plague West Africa, as key elections loom

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·December 20, 2024·2 min read

Leonardo Santos Simão, highlighted upcoming presidential elections in Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau, and the adoption of constitutional reforms amid a strained political environment in Gambia. He also commended recent successful elections in Ghana and Senegal, noting the signing of a “Peace Pact” by all presidential candidates in Ghana and the...

Gaza is now a graveyard and there’s no escape, say UN aid teams

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·December 20, 2024·2 min read

“The world is not seeing what’s going on with these people, it’s impossible for families to shelter in these conditions,” said Louise Wateridge, from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). Speaking from Nuseirat in central Gaza after heavy winter rains overnight and into Friday morning, the UNRWA Senior Emergency Officer...

Reconstruction and vital repairs underway in Syria, as ‘security conditions’ permit

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·December 20, 2024·2 min read

UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters at the daily briefing on Thursday that bakeries in Aleppo are at near full capacity – “but partners report that they have seen long queues and crowding.” The UN aid coordination office, OCHA, reports that the rehabilitation of key facilities has begun in the northwest of Syria...

Humanity’s fate can’t be left to algorithms, UN chief tells Security Council

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·December 20, 2024·1 min read

Addressing ministers and ambassadors, António Guterres warned that rapid developments in AI are outpacing humanity’s ability to govern it, raising important questions about accountability, equality, safety and human oversight in decision-making. “Every moment of delay in establishing international guardrails increases the risk for us all,” Mr. Guterres said. “No country...

‘Dying hungry and in pain’: An increasingly likely outcome in Gaza

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·December 19, 2024·2 min read

Speaking to correspondents via video link on Thursday, the senior OCHA official underscored the grim reality facing over two million people trapped in Gaza, where basic necessities like food, shelter, and safety have become scarce. “Dying hungry and in pain” is an increasingly likely outcome for children, mothers, aid workers,...

Syria’s new ‘flame of hope’ must not be extinguished: Guterres

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·December 19, 2024·2 min read

That’s the warning from UN Secretary-General António Guterres speaking to reporters in New York on Thursday morning. He said there is “a real risk that progress could unravel,” without an “inclusive, credible and peaceful” political transition that is Syrian led, on behalf of all its citizens. “The people of Syria stand...

Syria: UN envoy concludes talks in Damascus, citing hope for democratic future

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·December 19, 2024·3 min read

“It’s early days,” Geir Pedersen said referring to the dramatic events of less than two weeks ago that ended decades of dictatorship. “But I think it is important to say that there is a lot of hope that we can now see the beginning of a new Syria.” He emphasised...